Homemade Beauty Series: Loved MAC Naked Honey Salve? Make your own!

September 28, 2009

If there is one collection MAC released that I liked a lot it was the Naked Honey collection. I did miss out on the Salve because you hoarders out there bought them all before I had the chance too…tut.

But when I can’t get hold of something what do I do? I steal make it!

Let’s get started after the jump!

There isn’t much info about the Naked Honey Salve, on the site it says:

Ingredients (makes a large tub)

Honey – moisturising ingredient – look I’m using my posh one from Marks & Spencers that has a honeycomb in it and everything!:

Pure Vitamine E Oil – you can also buy it from The Body Shop and you can buy Vitamin E capsule (from theVitamin section) and pop them. Good Vitamin E oil is quite thick and gloopy:

Propolis Powder – you can buy this from a health food store and all over the internet. Propolis is a resin that Bees create when they build their hives. Its a mixture of poplar and conifer trees, bee secretions and beeswax.

It is supposed to be highly anti-inflammatory – I used to take a spoonful of this stuff for hayfever although anyone allergic to bee products should be careful using this:

The Method

Measure out your ingredients.

Fill a pan with water and bring to the boil:

Add a bain marie – this is basically just a pan on top of the boiling water as putting the butters on a direct heat may cause it to burn. This one I am using here is from Ikea and cost about £4.

Chuck your butters in. I might add that beeswax and shea take the longest to melt so by all means add these first:

Stir! Don’t let it boil:

Takes about 5 mins and it will have all melted:

Next, when the fats have melted turn down the heat and put the propolis powder in. Stir like mad!

Propolis is a pain in the butt to dissolve so all we are going to do, is mix it into the mixture and really work it in for 10 minutes:

You can see the mixture turning a little yellow:

The powder has started to settle a little – you can see it at the bottom. If we leave this in the result will be grainy, so we will have to strain it:

I took some cloth (albeit flowery) to use as a strainer. Then I poured the oil into the cloth (which is over a bowl, of course):

Once it has been strained your oil will be nice and clear of nasty bits. Add your vitamin E oil and the honey:

Stir like the wind!:

Be quick now, we don’t want it to set. I am using a used up Body Shop tub, and pouring the mixture in:

The finished honey salve:

It isn’t 100% set at the point but as you can see, its quite a nice little emollient:

I am not really a fan of the scent of Propolis and the natural honey scent disappears under all the other ingredients. However, I was making this mixture just for Mr Candy who quite likes the scent so it saved me adding essential oils for no reason.

You can use this salve on your skin, on nails etc. etc.

It’s full of goodness, y’all!

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial, check out my other homemade tutorials!

you and your tutorials. this is great..even though i was one of those hoarders. i walked through the bulk soap/lotion making aisle of the craft store the other day. i felt so lost. i’ll just re-read your tutorials

hi i love this thank you for posting this!! but i have a question, where can i buy bees wax, coconut oil, and the powdered propolis.. i’ve looked at henrys and trader joes, and they dont have any.. oh and i went out of town and found some bee pollen, can i add that??